


In Which Rhys Can't Let It Go

by veepersjeepers



Series: Eridian Origins [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Smut, Headcanon, M/M, Multi, Romance, Siren Rhys, Tales From the Borderlands, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 05:32:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18910558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veepersjeepers/pseuds/veepersjeepers
Summary: Siren AU. First part of an installment where Rhys is an idiot who can't deal with his problems like a functioning human being and things go horribly wrong for it. Later, there's Siren Shenanigans, and eventually there's going to be the pursuit of knowledge on Sirens that Maya was searching for with Rhys and Lilith along for the ride. Explicit for coming chapters.





	In Which Rhys Can't Let It Go

In most south-flying situations, Rhys’ first instinct was to research. Rather, his first instinct was to worry about it, but that had always lead to research. The best way to wrangle control in a world that consistently held it just out of his reach was to learn. He’d gotten quite good at using this method to navigate through life, he thought. However, he also thought that he could manage two majors, an internship, and a minor back in college, so perhaps his thoughts weren’t the most reliable.

Rhys stood over the third cybernetic arm prototype he’d blown through in the past few months, feeling the tinges of frustration just at the tops of his cheeks. Before he’d opened the Vault of the Traveler with Fiona, the worst his unruly abilities had done was shut down his cybernetics. Now, not only were they shutting his cybernetics down, but they were laying waste to them for their audacity of being on his person. And they were flickering lights. And blinking out all of his tech. And destroying unsaved files. On top of it all, it seemed the more emotional he got, the worse off these uncontrolled jolts of electric power became. That was one of the only facts Rhys pieced together from his limited pool of knowledge on the curse.

Admittedly, the lack of knowledge on this situation was partially Rhys’ fault. For the first and only time, he didn’t _want_ to learn more about the condition he suffered. He didn’t want to convene with the Firehawk or Maya or expand his powers or explode psycho-bandits’ heads or whatever else came with this territory. He wanted these powers out of his life and out of his makeshift workshop, and up until recently, he could’ve pretended they weren’t there. 

In the past, he’d kept the markings out of sight, successfully suppressed the sparking bits of power under his fingertips and stayed under Hyperion’s radar for people--girls, really--with blue ‘tattoos.’ He had convinced himself that if no one else knew anything was wrong, then nothing was wrong.

Rhys’ inner lip burned from being chewed, copper taste coating his dry tongue. The sight of the internal damage to his latest creation was going to raise his blood pressure, no doubt, but he needed to create something stronger for next time. This was the first step. Thoughtlessly, he reached out with his right arm, before becoming acutely aware of its absence. _Duh. It’s on the desk._

It was harder to ruin his posture without both arms to support him when he hovered over his projects. Perhaps now was a good time to invest in a chair. Rhys took up a flat screwdriver and opened the small hatch on his prototype. A cacophony of melted wires and fried circuit boards laid underneath. Rhys barked out a laugh, surprising himself. _What a mess._ He almost wanted to put it out of its misery, as sentimental as it sounded in his head.

“Sorry, buddy,” Rhys said, quiet enough to negate the echo that often bounced around in the empty Atlas facility. 

He worked in silence on the autopsy, assessing what would need to be done next time to prevent this from happening again. He’d already installed rods to take the electricity he outputted and redirect it, sure, but now he was putting out too much for even that. The thought that was once in the back of his mind, this time barrelled straight to the front. 

Either he has to fix the next arm, or he has to fix himself. 

Rhys heaved a heavy sigh, putting down his tools and giving them a harsh glare. They weren’t the cause of his problems, nor did they have any cognizance with which to be offended. The glaring hadn’t made him feel better, either. Still, he continued with the harsh stare until he sorted himself out. He had a decision to make. How much longer was he going to bend for and work around these powers? Was he going to let it get so out of hand that he blows the place up? Hurts someone? Kills someone? What was he willing to tolerate? 

Of course, he could always improve his work, there was no doubt about that. This arm could take more shock, but he’d need more rods. Better rods. Something that could take a real electrical hit— something like what was in those old shock-resistant Atlas shields. There had to be the blueprints for that somewhere around the facility. But… that wouldn’t fix the real problem. Rhys was always a fixer. It was only a matter of time before the problem could no longer be ignored. 

Rhys’ ECHO device went off, scaring him into a pitiful yelp. Still frazzled, he attempted to grab it off his person and watched helplessly as it clattered to the floor. This was so much easier when his ECHO eye was still functional. And when he had two arms to catch falling objects. 

A voice message from Vaughn was waiting for him. Rhys felt a twinge of guilt slip through the cracks, trying to recall how long it had actually been since he’d checked up with anyone. It definitely wasn’t right to keep his friends in the dark, but nobody except for Vaughn had any inkling as to what had been mucking up Rhys’ life as of late. Despite how much Rhys swore he trusted his little found family, there were some things that he still couldn’t easily share. 

The message played, bringing with it a current of comfort that was unique to the sound of Vaughn’s voice. 

“Hey, man. Well, uh, I haven’t heard from you in a while and… not your usual ‘I’m gonna hole myself up and finish a project’ type of while. It’s, it’s been a month.” 

Had it been a month? How long had he been up here? And when was the last time he slept…

“And originally, I was gonna surprise you when I got there, but you’ve never been great with surprises, so… I’m coming to the facility. I’m already on my way, and I am gonna be there soon, but I gave you a heads up, so hopefully you won’t… _completely_ bite my head off when I get there. If you even check your voicemail anymore. Love you. ‘Bye.”

The warmth of comfort drained into the cold, metallic air, leaving a nervous chill to run down Rhys’ back. _Shit._ How soon was he going to be here? What’s soon? It took days to get from Helios to the Atlas facility, but if Vaughn said soon, he did not mean a few days. 

_‘Not gonna surprise me,’ my ass,_ Rhys thought, making a note to take Vaughn up on that head-biting thing as soon as he was in sight. The screen of his ECHO device flickered. It shut off momentarily, before he had the chance to drop it for the second time that day. He placed it back on the desk, holding his hand up in a show of surrender. 

“Okay! I’m done. Please don’t break,” Rhys said, backing away.

If he was going to have someone over, this place could’ve at least looked like someone sane was living in it. And Rhys could’ve looked more like someone sane. He started the long walk to his little corner of the facility, leaving his ECHO device alone to reconsider its actions. As he travelled down long pathways and back doors, the lights above him twitched and flickered.

Rhys hadn’t had anyone in his ‘home’ before this. The Atlas facility was a place of work and most often, nobody bothered him here. That was why, in a crisis where your main fear was hurting the people around you, this would be place number one for hiding away until you were sorted out. Frankly, he’d much preferred the Helios base. It was where his friends were, the few of them that he had, and though sometimes the small size of the camp drove him crazy, he could get along fine with enough people and new things happening every day. 

The Atlas facility was empty and cold. Not many people lived around here and everything seemed static, frozen in time. The facility was almost like a punishment. A punishment for not fixing things sooner, for letting his problems get this bad, for lying to his friends and everyone else, even when it no longer benefitted him to do so, just because it was comfortable. 

On the other hand… shutting everyone out was probably a necessary evil. Rhys may not have been good at sorting his emotional state alone, but his biggest concern was his emotional state getting out of hand, being picked up like a breeze by his powers and frying his loved ones to scrambled crisps. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d annihilated someone. Bandits weren’t entirely absent in this corner of Pandora, and when one unfortunate bastard got in and Rhys had attempted to defend himself, he shocked the guy’s brains clean out. 

Certainly, he wasn’t worried about the bandit’s wellbeing, but he hadn’t meant to obliterate the guy. If he could do that to one person without meaning to, it could happen again. With Rhys’ luck, it _would_ happen again.

The temporary bedroom Rhys had left open stared back at him. Well, he called it a bedroom, but at the time it was beginning to look more like a poorly managed storage room. Various items laid wherever they may, thrown in by someone careless and promising to get to it later. He never left his desk like this, so why leave the place he sleeps in such a state? Though, he supposed sleep was giving him the silent treatment as of now. 

This was not going to help Vaughn believe Rhys was perfectly sound. Someone troubled lived here. Rhys was not troubled, or at least, he was going to act as if he wasn’t. At least, he was going to act the best he could to dodge Vaughn’s nigh undefeated bullshit detector. For the duration Vaughn insisted on staying. Already, this plan was coming to pieces, but hadn’t Rhys worked under worse conditions?

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was really introspective and not very progressive. Oops. I promise, it is leading up to fun shit. If you stuck around this long, thanks! I will be posting chapter 2 soon!


End file.
